The promise of hosted application "cloud computing" platforms is the ability to work anywhere, anytime. Unfortunately for Microsoft, the latest storm to obscure the promise of hosted applications hit its Windows Azure development platform last weekend. It was unavailable for 22 hours on March 13 and 14, eWeekreports.

It should be noted that Windows Azure, introduced at last October's Professional Developer's Conference (PDC), is still in its test phase. It's due to become generally available before the 2009 PDC in November, according to eWeek. Although it's still in testing, an essentially day-long outage isn't good news for Azure.

Is Azure the only cloud computing provider to have had problems from time to time? How reliable should cloud computing be? For your chance to sound off, join us after the jump.

Cybersquatting, which describes trying to profit by registering a domain name that uses a trademarked name or word to either attract visitors to the website and/or sell the site to the trademark owner, has been illegal for a decade now, but that doesn't mean the practice is slowing up. On the contrary, more complaints and legal action were filed in 2008 than ever before.

And it's not just businesses that are being targeted, either. In addition to the likes of Google, Nestle, and Ebay, complaints resonated from the likes of actress Scarlett Johansson. Going forward, some feel the problem will only worsen once ICANN launches new generic top-level domains (gTLDs).

"The creation of an unknowable and potentially vast number of new gTLDs raises significant issues for rights holders, as well as internet users generally," World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) director-general Francis Gurry said in a statement.

Gurry went on to say that his U.N. agency was working with ICANN on "pre- and post-delegation procedures" to look over proposed suffixes and prevent disputes.

If laptops keep getting bigger, we may need a new term for these gigantic portable PCs. Such would be the case if rumors of ViewSonic releasing a 22-inch notebook turn out to be true.

The rumor comes courtesy of news site DigiTimes. Citing those always un-named "industry sources" in Taiwan, DigiTimes says ViewSonic is looking to have a bigger presence in the Chinese market, a goal it literally plans to follow through with by developing a 22-inch laptop to be released in China. The company also plans to push its full product line, from LCDs to netbooks, in China as well.

Earlier this year ViewSonic jumped into the netbook and nettop sectors with the VieBook and ViePC, respectively. The all-in-one ViePC comes with an 18.5-inch display, which means the low-power desktop would be trumped in size by the rumored 22-inch laptop.

No other details are yet available on the upcoming notebook, including price and whether or not ViewSonic also plans to release it in the U.S. market.

It was a year ago that security researcher Charlie Miller walked away with $10,000 for hacking into a MacBook Air with Safari in just two minutes during the annual Pwn2Own competition, and earlier this month Miller predicted Safari would be the first to fall at this year's event. Miller made good on that promise this week by using a prepared exploit to gain full control of the device in about 10 seconds.

"It's not easy, but this worked with one click [from the Safari browser]", Miller said.

Miller had discovered the exploit last year, which allows a remote attacker to take over a machine if a user clicks on a malicious URL. Details of the exploit, which Miller isn't allowed to divulge, will be shared with Apple from contest sponsor TippingPoint so that Apple can develop a patch.

On the same day, a 25-year-old computer science student at the University of Oldenburg in Germany demonstrated exploits in IE8, Safari, and Firefox, earning him a cool $15,000 ($5,000 per exploit), along with getting to keep the Sony Vaio P series notebook he used (Miller pocketed $5,000 and a MacBook Air).

While three major browsers succumbed to hacking attempts on day one, no mobile exploits have yet been successful. Mobile exploits carry the biggest reward for contest participants, with TippingPoint offering $10,000 for each successful exploit in the major smartphones.

Windows 7 is already feeling the love from both graphics camps. Earlier this month, Nvidia released a specialized Forceware driver for the beta OS along with the promise of regular updates, and now AMD has followed suit with its new ATI Catalyst 9.3 driver this week. However, the new Catalyst driver rolls both Windows 7 and Vista support into a single download, allowing the company to lay claim as offering the "first unified driver installation package to incorporate Windows 7 support." AMD says future Catalyst releases will also be unified for both the current and upcoming Windows OSes.

"AMD's expertise in visual computing shines through in the combined experience of Windows 7 and ATI Radeon graphics," said Anantha Kancherla, group manager responsible for Windows graphics, Microsoft. "With today's release of a Windows 7 unified driver, AMD once again demonstrates its ability to deliver perfromance and cutting-edge driver support."

Hit the jump to find out what else to expect from the new Catalyst 9.3 unified driver.

As children, we were always taught that ingesting red and/or blue fluids – generally those found in that Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil otherwise known as “the cabinet under the sink” – wasn’t among the better choices we could make, no matter how devilishly tempting it might’ve been.

Only now, however, do we fully comprehend the breadth of our parents’ bounteous wisdom.

For some maniacal reason, Blizzard has decided to pair its uber-successful World of Warcraft franchise with another one of man’s more inexplicably addictive creations: Mountain Dew. The result: a taste bud-burning crusade of what some might even venture to call “flavor.”

The drink comes in two varieties: Alliance Blue (“with a punch of Wild Fruit Flavor”) and Horde Red (“with a blast of Citrus Cherry Flavor”).

Both flavors will attempt to give Bawls – and other gamer-centric energy drinks -- a thorough licking this summer. We'll probably end up downing a bottle or two ourselves in penance for that terrible joke.

Other Valve games, we’re sure you’re great and all, but we think Valve is playing favorites. Really, just look at the numbers: Left 4 Dead, Valve’s tossing you just enough of the ol’ meat and mead to ensure your survival. And Half-Life 2: Episode 3, we thought we saw you once in a tabloid with Bigfoot, but that might’ve just been this guy. Meanwhile, it seems like Team Fortress 2 gains some new appendage at least once perweek, and, well, you can probably guess where this is going.

This week’s TF2 to-do adds multicore CPU rendering to the team-based shooter’s ever-growing repertoire, though it’s apparently not quite ready for primetime just yet. From the patch notes:

Added Multicore Rendering

This initial release is aimed at testing compatibility, so the option is OFF by default

To turn it on, go to the Options->Video->Advanced dialog, and check the "Multicore Rendering" option

Opera’s latest release, dubbed Opera Turbo, touts the ability to use the company’s own server to compress the data transferred by web sites, allowing users on slow Internet connections to surf at a reasonable speed.

According to Opera’s Roberto Mateu, Opera Turbo allows a person’s PC to grab data not just from the site, but also from their very own servers that can compress that site’s text and images by up to 80 percent. It’s recommended that people on connections slower than 100Kbps use the program for optimal results.

Sure, you could carry around all of your personal data on a business card, but why do that when you can just carry about a Poken? These adorable little dongles allow you to carry all of your information (including your Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and others) and transfer it to others with the push of a button.

The Poken works by using an embedded RFID reader/transmitter. When a button on device is pushed it allows you to transfer your information between Poken (Pokens?). You can then plug this cuddly little tike into your computer and add that person to your contact list.

Right now the product is exclusively sold in the UK, but you can pick them up online.

The dispute between Intel and Nvidia over disagreements pertaining to Intel's Nehalem chipset license almost seems like old news now that Intel and AMD are going at each other. Intel claims AMD doesn't have the legal wherewithal to "unilaterally extend Intel's licensing rights to a third party," which in this case would be Globalfoundries, and has threatened to pull its 2001 agreement within 60 days if AMD doesn't address Intel's concerns. AMD, on the other hand, says it isn't doing anything wrong.

So who's in the right? To help determine that, Intel has offered to make the terms of the x86 cross-licensing deal public, for which AMD has agreed, but not without a stipulation. AMD wants Intel to lift the secrecy demand on all antiturst evidence submitted by AMD in the 2006 antitrust case.

"We will make the entire cross-license agreement public if they drop their insistence on secrecy on the evidence in the U.S. antitrust case," said Patrick Moorehead, AMD VP of marketing.

Intel does't appear willing to do so, and as far as the No. 1 chipmaker is concerned, AMD might just as well have rejected the offer outright.

"Intel is willing to make the entire [x86 cross-license] agreement public," said Chuck Mulloy, Intel spokesman. "We've told AMD we would be fine with making the entire agreement public. AMD has declined to do so."